Fun, Hot Century

Harpeth River Ride Registration

Wow. Today's ride was hot. And then it got hotter. On the pavement, it was probably between 100 and 110 most of the day. I started out near the front with the group.

Someone was taking pictures of us starting

We started around 7:40, which was about 10 minutes later than planned, but they had a bunch of people on tandems and triples who were riding with blind athletes on the back--how cool is that! Within the first 5 miles, I noticed another lady in the group with us and I determined that I would stay with her the entire time. We were at the front, I didn't see any others, and I didn't want to lose her. So I told myself it would be just like the Olympics or draft-legal races: If you get off the bike with the women, you have a better chance of being in the running for the win.

We got caught by Bruce G. (a pro who rides for Timex) and a bunch of other fast guys and averaged 21.5 for the first 20 miles. Woohoo!

Starting right next to Bruce...if only I had a kit on to make me look legit

Bruce and some others continued on at that blistering pace, and I stayed with Sandra and Oliver for the remainder of the ride. We also rode with Tony, Todd, Casey, Bigdog (or was it Dirtdog?), and others. Kat, LuzMa, Lynn, Kevin, Christian, Joyce, Tom and Jill, John, Lonnie, Wade, and Margaret were a few others I saw during the course of the day.

The route...check out the elevation and amount of climbing!

It was a tough route in tough heat. But I definitely had fun! Stats from the Garmin (and the bike if they differ):

• 101 miles (100.3)
• 5:39:37 (5:34:37--This is more accurate, because the Auto Pause feature wasn't working well as I walked around aid stations.
• 17.8 average (18.1 average--This is definitely more accurate.)
• 45.4 max speed
• 7,016 calories
• 151 average HR (not quite Z2, just like tomorrow likely won't be a Z1 run!)

Yesterday I didn't do any of the 5-minutes extreme slow, so tonight after church I headed to the Y to see what I could do.

• Wall squat: Although it was hard, my quads cooperated and I did this; up and down twice.
• Glute ham: My hamstrings, which I use frequently and hard in my aero bars, did not cooperate when starting the extreme slow from 80*. I tried twice, didn't last longer than 30 seconds, and so did a 5-minute ISO.
  
• Push up: I lasted about 30 seconds from the top to the bottom including 10 seconds at the bottom. Yikes. But I did my best, tried hard to focus on using my lats and everything and think about swimming, and did all 5 minutes, extreme slow.
• Curl: Will said to use a light bar, like 20 pounds. I don't think he knows how hard 20 pounds was for the 3-minute ISO earlier this week, so I used a light bar: 12 pounds. Maybe too light, but I was just thinking about lengthening my biceps toward the wall in front of me.

I will finish the rest (lunge L, R and crate crunch) tomorrow after my riderun.